Collaborative Studios

Mississippi State University’s College of Architecture, Art and Design is paving the way nationally when it comes to collaboration between the fields of construction and architecture.

In the fall, CAAD’s second-year architecture and building construction science studios come together to form a joint collaborative studio, where students are challenged to bring knowledge from their two disciplines together. Each year, students in this studio are challenged to work together to design and construct a full-scale product from start to finish for a real client.

Third-year architecture and building construction science studios join in the spring for more collaborative work.

Forty-four architecture and 39 building construction science students collaborated on the design and construction of benches used by 13 American Utopian communities and also built benches of their own design.

The fall 2016 Collaborative Tectonics Studio, which consisted of second-year students studying architecture (41 students) and building construction science (40 students), spent the semester building a cabin for the Hood Boy Scout Reservation in Hazelhurst, Miss., approximately 180 miles from the MSU main campus in Starkville.

Aside from the prototype Steep Slope Cabin (referring to the typical hillside site condition the cabins are designed to fit on) that students built in the first half of the term, each student also generated an individual proposal for a second prototype cabin.

Master planning a second grouping of 16 cabins, or what’s known as a “village” on the reservation, these cabins were designed to accommodate a different user group for corporate retreat style events.

Architecture and building construction science students participated in a detailed project planning, cost estimating, scheduling and construction exercise. The 11-week effort resulted in the construction of two unique structures on the MSU campus. The structures form part of a home garden demonstration site located adjacent to the Landscape Architecture buildings just off Bully Blvd. on the MSU main campus. Realized by students as a kit-of-parts, which feature hand built Shou Sugi Ban cypress partitions and a gull wing kinetic folding wall system, the project focused on foundational materials and methods issues. Read more here.

In the second portion of the studio, students presented original Tea House designs based upon the recast kit of parts they previously deployed for the MSU Landscape Architecture BUILD project. Detailed assembly diagrams, materials estimates, and design models/renderings were presented as evidence of the students' newly forged knowledge of architectural tectonics. Read more here.​​​​​​​

The 2015 Spring Collaborative Studio, which included third-year architecture and building construction science students and professors from both units, presented their final reviews on April 28, 2015 in Giles Hall.

For the project, the student teams designed a new fire station for the Starkville Fire Department. The students worked with their faculty, professional architects and professional constructors to develop the project.

Click here to read more about the project and see photos from the final reviews.

The Fall 2014 Collaborative Studio, which consisted of second-year architecture and building construction science students, designed and built two facilities for the MSU Golf Course. The new structures at the fourth and 10th holes were complete with men’s and women’s accommodations and cart parking spaces on each side.

The Spring 2014 Collaborative Studio student teams designed a new fire station in Caledonia for the Lowndes County Volunteer Fire Department. The students worked with their faculty and a collection of volunteer firefighters, professional architects and professional constructors to develop the project.

Second-year building construction science and architecture students worked together in the Fall 2013 Collaborative Studio to research, design and construct two bus shelters for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. On Dec. 2, 2013, students, faculty, administration and representatives from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians celebrated at the two locations at Pearl River and Tucker.